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Re: ran [up] a huge bill: tree diagram.

Originally Posted by Frank Antonson

"ran up" could probably also all be on the base line -- as opposed to "up" modifying "ran".

RK is a syntactic representation. Even though the words in 'run up' cohere semantically, they are separate units when it comes to diagraming. There is not a watertight one-to-one relationship between them. 'up' is an adverbial particle that is tagged onto the verb in the same way as 'in' is onto 'come' in 'May I come in?'.

Re: ran [up] a huge bill: tree diagram.

Originally Posted by Barb_D

the two words in the phrasal verb "ran up" do not share the same relationship as the two words in "come in."

In other words, 'come in' is a free combination of verb plus particle, while 'run up' is a phrasal verb. I agree wholeheartedly, but the point you are making is beside the point I was making, which is that when I diagram these combinations, I regard them equal in that they both comprise a verb plus an adverbial particle.

Re: ran [up] a huge bill: tree diagram.

Probably the etymology of those verb phrases could shed light on the issue -- i.e. where did they come from? The American text House and Harmon is pretty good at considering etymology. The OED could probably help too.

But that's more research than I am willing to do. In a CSD (competitive sentence diagramming) situation, as judge, I would accept either version.